U.S. Supreme Court expands gun rights, with nation divided

WASHINGTON (AP) - In a major expansion of gun rights after a series of mass shootings, the Supreme Court said Thursday that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense, a ruling likely to lead to more people legally armed.

President Joe Biden said in a statement he was “deeply disappointed” by the Supreme Court ruling.

The justices said that requirement violates the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms.”.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority that the Constitution protects “an individual's right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.” That right is not a “second-class right,” Thomas wrote.

Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice and an expert on the Second Amendment, wrote on Twitter that the decision could be the “biggest expansion of gun rights” by the Supreme Court in U.S.

Tom King, president of the plaintiff New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, said he was relieved.

“The lawful and legal gun owner of New York State is no longer going to be persecuted by laws that have nothing to do with the safety of the people and will do nothing to make the people safer,” he said.

About half of the voters in the 2020 presidential election said gun laws in the U.S.

An additional one-third said laws should be kept as they are, while only about 1 in 10 said gun laws should be less strict.

About 8 in 10 Democratic voters said gun laws should be made more strict, VoteCast showed.

Among Republican voters, roughly half said laws should be kept as they are, while the remaining half closely divided between more and less strict

He said the ruling would “severely” burden states' efforts to pass laws “that limit, in various ways, who may purchase, carry, or use firearms of different kinds.”

Alito wrote that the court had decided “nothing about who may lawfully possess a firearm or the requirements that must be met to buy a gun” and nothing “about the kinds of weapons that people may possess.”

“Today, unfortunately, many Americans have good reason to fear they will be victimized if they are unable to protect themselves.” The Second Amendment, he said, “guarantees their right to do so.”

States can still require people to get a license to carry a gun, Kavanaugh wrote, and condition that license on “fingerprinting, a background check, a mental health records check, and training in firearms handling and in laws regarding the use of force, among other possible requirements.”

The state had issued unrestricted licenses where a person could carry a gun anywhere and restricted licenses allowing a person to carry the weapon but just for specific purposes such as hunting and target shooting or to and from their place of business

The challenge to the New York law was brought by the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, which describes itself as the nation's oldest firearms advocacy organization, and two men seeking an unrestricted ability to carry guns outside their homes

The Supreme Court last issued a major gun decision in 2010

In that decision and a ruling from 2008 the justices established a nationwide right to keep a gun at home for self-defense